Meet The Industry #001: Dani Marsland (Perth)

While we love bringing you coverage and features with some of our favourite musicians and creatives doing the good thing at home and abroad, there are so many dedicated and passionate individuals keeping things churning behind the scenes as well, all in different capacities. With BIGSOUND coming up, we thought it would be as good a time as ever to throw the spotlight on some of those people who are making golden moves right around the country at the moment.

First cab off the rank is Dani Marsland – based out in WA, the producer, journalist and publicist is part of the Pilerats collective. Heading to BIGSOUND with the crew to not only speak as part of the conference programming, but also to film a live series with showcase artists for Pile TV, Dani and her team are favourites of ours and many around the country. She tells us some more about her role within the company…

Outline your day to day and the scene in which you are based?

I’m based on the best coast – the West Coast! For the past three years I’ve worked as an in-house publicist, video producer, and journalist with a top bunch of humans called Pilerats. We’re a full-service creative agency, a record label, a website ….and the most professional unprofessionals you’ll likely ever have the pleasure of doing business or pleasure with!

Current PR work for me includes: Pilerats Records (all acts on the roster – Sable, Lower Spectrum, Willow Beats, Hideous Sun Demon, Leon Osborn and more) Pilerats Mgmt artists (Tina Says, Time Pilot, St. South and Sable), corporate clients for Made in the Pile, Wonderland Festival, Castaway Festival, and previously, CIRCO Festival, and live music venue/club Jack Rabbit Slim’s. I also produce our music video series, Pile TV Live Sessions.

How did you become involved in this area?

I studied a Law degree for four years, but ended up becoming a journalist! My first job was as club editor of a music mag, then for four years was Editor of The Thousands Perth, a weekly, underground digital Time Out-style guide to the city. I did a heap of writing and publicity work for the music and arts community while I was at The Thousands – this led to me launching myself as a freelance publicist. An early client was CIRCO Festival (all time fave experience!), after which I continued to do contract work for Pilerats/Metric. The guys always had a heap of stuff happening that I could get my hands dirty with, so it turned into a full-time thing (of chameleonic proportions).

What are some of the exciting things you’re currently working on?

So many great things on the go! Most exciting for me is that the music video series we produce, Pile TV Live Sessions, where we ask artists to strip back well known songs of theirs and capture it in stunning black-and-white in unusual locations) is currently going gangbusters. We will be shooting in Brisbane at BIGSOUND, with further expansion on the cards following that.

Metric have added a new seaside festival to their event stable, which we’ll be able to tell you all about soon. I’m also really amped for the Wonderland project to swing into gear – Wonderland’s this special cultural and music event that always takes place in a beautiful location and has a really intimate feel to it (Plug: the ballot’s open now – register now for a chance to score $0 tickets – www.wonderlandfestival.com).

I always find Wonderland really rewarding to work on: Luke Whelan, the Festival Director, has a really positive outlook, he’s always encouraging of new approaches and activations; and has given me great opportunities for professional growth; last year as well as running the PR campaign, I managed a partnership between the festival and General Pants; and I also led an on-site activation – a goods and services marketplace called The Teepee Village – that I managed from concept to execution. The Village will return (super-sized) at this year’s Wonderland, along with plenty of new surprises.

Can you tell us a bit about Pilerats and Metric Events’ development into the brands they are today? I know it’s not just Pilerats.com, but a record label, Pile TV, music festivals… there’s a lot happening! 

Pilerats and Metric are sister companies working out of the same inner-city castle. Metric are one of Pilerats’ clients – we do design, PR, marketing, etc for Metric.  Pilerats began as an innovative iPad magazine app, before evolving into a cultural/social and music news website, record label and management, and creative agency.

The agency creates standout video content not just for our music and corporate clients, but for our own channel, Pile TV. Metric began as a group of entrepreneurial uni mates throwing epic club nights, first for fun, before they craftily grew it into a legitimate business (featuring the most illegitimate displays of behavior ever haha). I didn’t know the guys back then… but Metric’s still very much thriving in its current day format – as a meme factory. Kidding, they run a live music venue and diner Jack Rabbit Slim’s, as well as a series of successful club nights (Father (national), Frayed, Mondo, Cheek) and the music festivals.

Being based in WA would offer a great perspective as to how things run so far away from the east coast – what do you enjoy most about working in that area of the country and with such a thriving music community out there?

I think our music and creative communities thrive out here because we’re hyper-industrious. Living so far away, we don’t have the same access to opportunity – big clients, brands – that our east coast counterparts have in in close proximity. We end up working heaps harder to prove ourselves.

A downside is that we do lack that consistent social interaction with our industry networks – we don’t bump into colleagues beyond our own company every weekend, so we can’t lean on anyone for advice, or make as many deals over beers. The upshot of this is that we’re insanely friendly – Perth people are always the first to fling open our doors to visitors (/fresh party sidekick blood) or make great new mates wherever we go.

Team Pilerats.
Team Pilerats.

Advice you’d give to an aspiring music industry member or publicist about getting into this business?

In the lyrics of M83 – ‘do it’, ‘try it’. There’s a lot of big personalities and big competition in the music industry – so if you want your ideas heard, or you want to be doing something, or be involved in a project, or with a person, you have to be vocal about it, fight for what you want, make a case for it.

I think for publicists (and maybe this extends to managers, or agents too) as you keep in mind that your client is an artist connected to their creative product first, and an industry player second, you’ll be able to represent their interests with sincerity. Knowing your artist’s goals, why they’re doing it – these things are important, so you can get behind them.

Always listen to new music. Always go to the show. It’s hard to not get weighed down behind your computer screen or overly wrapped up in the business side of it all, but you need to regularly remind yourself why you’re in this game! There’s so many great like-minded humans working in the music industry: if you take the time to get to know them off-duty – at the bar, on the dancefloor, at a kick-on, the daytime working relationships just become that much easier.

Hangs with Luca Brasi.
Hangs with Luca Brasi.

What do you enjoy doing/indulging in most when you’re not at work?

Cinemas, theatres, art galleries and music venues are my happy places. And eating stunning food and wine in and around those places. Music gigs take up most weekends, and I think I probably see about two films a week, often by myself – there’s a great arthouse cinema in Perth called Luna that always shows the best indie films and docos. I love sitting in the dark, inhaling popcorn, getting lost in other peoples’ worlds. Next month I’ve got tickets to the opera, which will be a hoot.

I also host a radio show on RTRFM – Cloudwaves. And I read heaps! I work in a bookstore, so buy heaps of ‘em – I have a home library that needs serious downsizing. If I didn’t have to do real life things, I’d seriously just stay in bed – or even better, the bathtub – reading all day. One day I want to go on a holiday planned around the world’s best libraries and bookstores, how amazing would that be?

You’re speaking at BIGSOUND this year – can you tell us a bit about that and what the opportunity means for you, and what you’re looking forward to at BIGSOUND?

Yeah BIGSOUND is gonna be all time! We’ve got a decent crew from Pilerats heading over. Hideous Sun Demon and Willow Beats on the label are playing and we’re shooting a full day of Live Sessions on-site . I’m looking forward to swapping tips and tricks with other publicists, journalists and editors at BIGSOUND…or just crying/bitching/laughing about 2016 music shit over a billion litres of champagne.

I’ll be speaking on a panel – 21st Century Publicity . It’s all about how publicists are adapting to today’s changing media/consumer landscape – which is shorthand for how publicists have really had to work hard for the money lately! Traditional coverage, especially for music artists and music festivals, is losing its effectiveness: we have a print media that’s nearly dead, digital media has paved the way for an over-saturated music market that makes it harder to stand out with so many artists vying for coverage. There’s demand for custom and native content, influencer marketing is a thing. I’m keen to chat about growing relationships through social platforms, working with social marketing teams, pre-developing content in-house, thinking about creative and tactical partnerships to bring in new audiences. Hopefully I can say something vaguely useful haha.

And man, so many incredible bands to see at BIGSOUND! I’m keen on A.B. Original, have been watching Cleverman on ABC and Briggs is so great in it. Good Boy, MOSSY, Golden Vessel and GL are also on my list of acts to catch.

BIGSOUND delegates, catch Dani Marsland at BIGSOUND on Thursday, September 8th on the ‘Future Marketing 2: 21st Century Publicity’ panel speaking alongside Siobhan Kranz (Mushroom Promotions), Ivano Maggiuli (Brace Yourself PR), Eve Barlow (USA) and Dana Erickson (Grandstand Media & Management). 

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